CSS Method

The .css() method is a convenient way to get a style property from the first matched element, especially in light of the different ways browsers access most of those properties (the getComputedStyle() method in standards-based browsers versus the currentStyle and runtimeStyle properties in Internet Explorer) and the different terms browsers use for certain properties. For example, Internet Explorer's DOM implementation refers to the float property as styleFloat, while W3C standards-compliant browsers refer to it as cssFloat. The .css() method accounts for such differences, producing the same result no matter which term we use.

Example

For example, an element that is floated left will return the string left for each of the following three lines:

1. $('div.left').css('float');
2. $('div.left').css('cssFloat');
3. $('div.left').css('styleFloat');

Also, jQuery can equally interpret the CSS and DOM formatting of multiple-word properties. For example, jQuery understands and returns the correct value for both .css('background-color') and .css('backgroundColor').

Shorthand CSS properties (e.g. margin, background, border) are not supported. For example, if you want to retrieve the rendered margin, use: $(elem).css('marginTop') and $(elem).css('marginRight'), and so on.